Duke opened the season with N.C. Central last season, This year, it’s ECU that plays the Eagles in Week 1

The start of college football season is almost upon us.

Finally.

The anticipation level is so high after a long summer and a seemingly never-ending month of preseason camp that fans can’t wait to flock to stadiums all across the state, regardless of who their favorite teams are playing in their first game.

That’s probably a good thing, considering the uninspiring opening week matchups that await us next Saturday.

There’s North Carolina vs. Liberty in Chapel Hill, N.C. State vs. Georgia Southern in Raleigh, Duke vs. Elon in Durham and down in Greenville, it’s East Carolina vs. N.C. Central.

This is not to criticize the four local schools nor is it to suggest that they are alone in scheduling early season cupcakes. Both UNC and State have participated in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic over the past few years while ECU is famous for taking on heavyweights such as South Carolina, Virginia Tech and West Virginia right out of the gate.

Besides, so-called “guarantee games” are as much of a college football tradition as tailgating and marching bands. And other than catching our attention when David slays the occasional Goliath, they do actually serve a legitimate purpose.

Whether they’re played on opening day or a week later – as is Wake Forest’s home debut against Gardner-Webb – games against overmatched opponents give starters a chance to shake off some of their offseason rust while allowing coaches an opportunity to see and evaluate their backups in actual competition.

This is hardly an unfamiliar concept.

Tom O’Brien is a proponent of playing exhibition games

NFL teams play four such preseason contests every year. Even college basketball teams are allowed two exhibitions each to work out their kinks before playing a game that matters. In college football, though, every glorified scrimmage – including those that require a running clock in the second half to keep from getting too lopsided – counts toward a team’s record and bowl eligibility.

That needs to change. Instead of playing games against FCS opponents as part of the regular season – or eliminating them completely – why not designate them as practice games the week before the start of the usual 12-game schedule?

Tom O’Brien, for one, spoke often about the benefits of playing a preseason exhibition when he was coaching at N.C. State. Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, the nation’s winningest active coach, is also a proponent as is Rocky Long, whose San Diego State team takes on UNC on Sept. 6.

If a school doesn’t want to play an exhibition game, it could be allowed to hold a closed scrimmage against another team not on its schedule. It only makes sense for everyone involved.

Florida State beat Bethune-Cookman 54-6 on the way to its national championship last season

The big schools get a warmup for the regular season, along with an extra home gate. The small schools still get the big money payouts that go a long way toward funding their programs for the rest of the year. And the fans are spared those regular-season 70-0 massacres conferences such as the ACC are trying to discourage by enacting rules requiring their schools to play at least one “power five” opponent each year starting in 2017.

As with most logical ideas, the concept of college football preseason games has been slow to gain traction. It was discussed a few years back by members of the American Football Coaches Association at their annual convention, but nothing ever became of it.

With the establishment of a new college football playoff and the autonomy recently granted to the nation’s five most powerful conferences, there’s a good chance the subject will be come up again soon.

Until then, there’s still plenty to get excited about with the coming of a new season. Even if the opening week matchups aren’t all that exciting.

State wen 0-fer in the ACC last year. Can anyone they schedule be considered a cupcake? Especially when you consider it took a last second desperation field goal to beat RICHMOND. This team isn’t any better, and will probably be worse once everything is said and done.

Envy State better be careful, Florida choked on the very same “cupcake” last season.